Offline domain join is a new process that allows Windows machines running on Windows 7 or later (Windows Server 2008 R2 or later) to join a domain without contacting to the domain controller. It means it allows to join Windows machines to a domain in locations where there is no connectivity between domain servers and domain members.

There are two methods to join a Windows client to the Active Directory domain. These are:

Online Domain Join: Typically used when both the domain server and windows client are connected and able to communicate to each other.

Offline Domain Join: Typically used when domain server and Windows client are not connected to each other.

In order to perform offline domain joining, you have to use the djoin.exe command-line tool. In order to use the djoin.exe command, the user must have the rights to join workstations to the domain. By default, members of the Domain Admins group have the necessary rights to perform offline domain joining process.

Steps to Perform Offline Domain Join

To demonstrate the offline domain joining process, we are going to use a domain server running on Windows Server 2016 and a client running on Windows 10. The domain name is mcsalab.local. To perform the offline domain join, first. you need to create a provision file on the domain controller (named DC1). Next, copy this file on the client (named CLEINT1) and then use this file to join to the domain. The following syntax is used to create the provision file.

A printer is a hardware device which translates the soft copies into hard copies. A single printer can be shared on a network and then it can be accessed by multiple clients to send the print jobs. Once you shared a printer on a network, you need to connect it on each client in order to send the print jobs. However, in a large enterprise network, where multiple printers are used to handle a number of thousand print jobs, you may need to configure the printer pool for ease print management. In this post, we will explain how to install and configure a network printer on a Windows-based network. For this, you need to use Print and Document Services of Windows Server 2016.

In order to demonstrate how to install and configure Print and Document Services, we will use as server named SERVER1 and a client named CLIENT1. The server is running on Windows Server 2016 and acts as Domain controller. The client is running on Windows 10 and acts as Domain member.

Installing Print and Document Services

To install the Print and Document Services server role in Windows Server 2016, you need to perform the following steps:

On your server, launch the Add Roles and Features Wizard, and navigate to the Select Server Roles page.

Select the Print and Document Services check box. If the Add Roles and Features Wizard dialog box displays, click Add Features, and then click Next.

On the rest of the pages, click Next until the Confirm Installation Selections page displays.

Click Install to install the required role services. Click Close once the installation completes.

Adding a New Printer to the Print Server

After installing the Print and Document Services server role, you can add printer and fax devices to your server. To add a new printer to your print server, you need to perform the following steps:

Select and right-click Printers and then click Add Printer to add a new printer.

On the Network Printer Installation Wizard page, select the Add a new printer using an existing port radio button and then click Next.

On the Printer Driver page, make sure that the Install a new printer radio button is selected, and then click Next.

On the Printer Installation page, select the Manufacture and printer model.

Click Next and complete the wizard.

Sharing Network Printer

You can also share your printer on the network so the other clients can also send their print jobs. To share a printer, you need to perform the following steps:

On the Print Management console, select and right-click the recently added printer, and then click Properties.

On the printer properties dialog box, click the Sharing tab, select the List in the directory check box and then click Apply.

Note: Optionally, you can also change the Printer Share name.

Configuring Printer Pooling

If there are multiple printers on your network, you can create a printer pool for ease of the management. To configure printer pooling, you need to perform the following steps:

On the printer properties dialog box, click the Ports tab, select the Enable printer pooling option, and then select the LPT2: check box as an additional port.

We assume that our second printer is connected to LPT2 port. However, we don’t have such another printer.

Click OK to close the printer properties dialog box.

Connecting Network Printer from Windows Client

Now, you print server is ready to accept print jobs from clients. However, first, you need to connect your network printer on domain members before you can use it. To do so, you need to perform the following steps:

On your client machine, open Control Panel and click the Add a device link under Hardware and Sound.

On the Add a device window, your network printer should be displayed. Select the discovered printer and then click Next.

To verify that you network printer is added, click the View devices and printers link under Hardware and Sound.

Make sure that the recently added network printer is listed.

That’s all we need to do to install and configure Print and Document Services in Windows machines. If you have something to say us or want to help us to improve the article, please drop your queries and suggestions in the comments box.

Shadow copy is a feature that allows you to recover the files (typically the shared files) which are accidently overwritten or deleted. First, you need to enable this feature (on the desired disk). After that, you can create multiple shadow copy versions for the selected disk. However, shadow copy cannot be considered as an alternate of the Window backup feature, because it only works until the system is working on which you have enabled it. If the system goes down or crashed accidently, shadow copy cannot be used to recover the system or system’s data. In this post, we will explain how to configure shadow copy in Windows. Further, we will also explain how to recover the accidently deleted files using Shadow Copy. In the latest version of Windows operating systems, (such as Window 10 and Windows Server 2016), the File History feature is more popular than shadow copy.

Steps To Configure Shadow Copy

To configure shadow copy in Windows operating systems, (such as Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012), you need to perform the following steps:

Sign in to your system and open the Windows Explorer window.

Select and right-click Local Disk (C:), (or any other disk) and then click Configure Shadow Copies.

On the Shadow Copies dialog box, select your desired drive for which you want to enable and configure shadow copy. For example, open the properties the C:\ volume and then select the Shadow Copies tab.

Click Enable, on the Enable Shadow Copies message box, click Yes.

By default, shadow copies are created twice in a day from Monday to Friday. To change the default shadow copies setting, click Settings and then click Schedule.

On the C:\ schedule dialog box, select the desired schedule options, and then click OK.

On the Settings dialog box, click OK and close the Settings dialog box.

Recovering a Deleted File Using Shadow Copy

To test and verify the shadow copies, we will delete a folder of the C drive. After that, we will recover that folder using the Shadow Copy feature. To do so, perform the following steps:

On your system, navigate to Local Disk (C:), and then click Users. Delete the Public folder and also, delete it from RecycleBin.

On the Windows Explorer window, select and right-click the Users folder, and then click Properties.

On the Users Properties dialog box, click the Previous Versions tab, as shown in the following figure.

Select the folder version for the Users folder, and then click Open.

Verify that the Public is listed in the folder, select and right-click Public, and then click Copy.

On the other Windows Explorer window, navigate to the Local Disk (C:)\Users folder, and then click Paste.

Finally, close the Windows Explorer window.

That’s all you need to enable and configure shadow copy in Windows. Do share the article if you think it may help to others too.

Every operating system has its own certain minimum system requirements. For example, to install Window 10, minimum 512 MB of RAM is required. However, if you install a Windows operating system such as Windows 10 or Windows Server 2016 as virtual machine with one core processor and 512 MB of RAM, you might get the following error:

Windows cannot find the Microsoft License Terms.

The following figure shows the error when you try to install the latest version of Windows operating system as a virtual machine with one core processor and 512 MB (or less) of RAM.

Actually, this is not something related to license terms. You can fix this error by performing any of the following tricks:

Go to the virtual machine’s settings window and set the RAM size to at least 800 MB. Retry the installation process and decrease the RAM size back to 512 MB, once the installation is completed. However, if you are already running out of RAM space or do not want to increase the RAM size, try the second trick.

Press the Shift+F10 to open the Command Prompt window. Execute the following command and resume the installation process.

X:\>wpeutil createpagefile /path=C:\pf.sys

Refer the following figure.

Ignore the “command failed with status 0xXXXXXX” error. Just resume the installation process from the Install Now screen and you would be able to install it successfully.

Do share the article and please subscribe us if this post helped you. Drop your queries in the comment box if you have something to say or suggest us.